The Educational Association of the C.S.A.

THE EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THE C.S.A. O. L. Davis, Jr. Among its many home-front problems the Confederacy faced the question of its children's formal education. If diis posed difficulties in normal times, it proved doubly so as die new nation fought for its existence on the battle line. Of special concern to educators and odier interested citizens were persistent problems of maintaining support for public schools during the exigencies of war, and providing young Confederates with textbooks free from the taint of "foreign" views. Efforts to lead or coordinate nationwide action to cope widi diese pressing matters were confined, for the most part, to certain individuals and state groups. Yet midway in die war, a national organization , the Educational Association of die Confederate States of America, was formed. That its influence on Southern education was necessarily slight does not detract from the seriousness and inspiration of its intent . The actions which resulted in die organization of this association had dieir genesis in the activities of North Carolinians who were laboring on the problems of school support and textbooks widiin their own state.1 The first mondis of civil war brought serious threats to divert to die war effort the revenue from North Carolina's 'literary fund," die major source of financial support for the state's common schools. Sufficient influence was mustered to preserve the fund and, consequendy, it provided money for public schools throughout the conflict. The other dominant educational problem was the provision of textbooks, but it was not so quickly solved. Concern about textbooks used in Soutìiern schools was not new in North Carolina or the other states of the Confederacy. Southerners had protested what diey interpreted as Northern bias and inaccuracies in school books for many years2 and had called on Soutìiern writers to 1 A suggestion that teachers in the Confederacy work together on a permanent basis was made as early as 1861, but no specific action resulted. DeBow's Review. XXXI (1861), 469; Southern Literary Messenger, XXXIII (1861), 320. 2 The issue arose at least as early as 1795. See Edgar W. Knight, "An Early Case of Opposition in the South to Northern Textbooks, Journal of Southern History, XIII (1947), 245-264. 67 68CIVIL WAR HISTORY produce books particularly suited for Southern students.3 Soon after North Carolina seceded from the Union, State Superintendent of Schools Calvin H. Wiley called a convention of teachers in Raleigh to discuss die situation. Those in attendance agreed on die desirability of forbidding die importation of foreign textbooks and urged the production of locally written books. Textbook provision was likewise the principal item of concern at the 1861 and 1862 conventions of die State Educational Association of North Carolina. Progress in the production of volumes widiin die state was rapid and, at die 1862 meeting of diat association, Wiley announced diat die Soudi would soon be independent "of all odier countries" for its school books. At this meeting, members of die association adopted a resolution calling for "a general convention of teachers throughout the Confederate States ... to take into consideration die best means for supplying die necessary textbooks for use in our Schools and Colleges, and to unite dieir efforts for the advancement of die cause of education in die Confederacy. . . ."4 With this move, the North Carolina association recognized diat die supply of school books and odier educational matters were in fact general national problems and proposed a united attack on diem. The convention was called for April 28, 1863, at Columbia, South Carolina.5 Publicity and preparations were extensive. Circulars gained wide distribution. Newspapers carried articles announcing the convention and editorials urging a large attendance from throughout the South.6 Arrangements negotiated widi some railroad companies made possible free return tickets with the purchase of one-way fares, and, widi otìiers, free round-trip tickets for participants.7 Groups of teachers and citizens in several cities chose delegates to represent diem at die Columbia convention. A Petersburg, Virginia, literary group, the Kappa Delta Society, selected two delegates, only 3 Southern newspapers frequently mentioned the need for special Southern schoolbooks prior to the war, and Southern commercial conventions passed resolutions...